This guy sells some lovely vintage cloth.
http://www.vintage-radio.com/trg/ I'm sure he'd send you some samples if you asked. They look much much nicer in the flesh than in the photos, most of them have some gold thread in them.
I used a staple gun to fix the cloth. First off fold the cloth over and make sure the threads are aligned parallel to the edge of the board. Staple (on the back not the edge) every 50mm or so starting 25mm from the corner. Flip it over, if you are happy with the alignment add more staples so that they are about 15-20mm or closer. Then along the other edged just pull it tight by hand and then flip it over to check that the weave is straight and not skewed, then place one staple at the point where you have pulled it tight. The move along 50mm, pull tight , staple. When you've got to the end check the cloth then you can add the remaining staples pulling tight each time.
Then do the same for the other sides being careful on the first edge not to pull the weave out of alignment. This will leave you with the corners to trim, now I've found the best way is to use a soldering iron to cut the cloth, it seals the edges nicely. When you've mitred the corners staple these down aswell.
If you've got any looseness in the cloth dampen it lightly and then dry it with a hot air gun (DON@T GET TOO CLOSE OR YOU'LL MELT IT!!) or a hairdryer, this will tighten the cloth.
If you are making a new board to mount the cloth use paint to blacken it not dye since the dampening will pull out the dye and mark the cloth. You will also find that a very small (1-2mm) chamfer on the front edge of the board will aid tensioning the cloth. You will need to allow for the thickness of the cloth, especially at the corners where you might have a double thickness, so don't make the board too tight a fit. If you are going to fit tadpole piping it needs to be smaller still I take 4-5mm off each tight dimension, but the benefit is that the piping easily hides a slightly too large a gap. (this is for fitting into a wooden enclosure like the TR arrangement, not the aluminium strip that D's and Nik use)
Hope thats some help
Hywel Harris
to keep the forums alive.
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